A team of astronomers led by Bruce Macintosh of the University of Standford (USA) has discovered thanks to the Gemini Planet Imager (GPI) instrument, a cutting-edge camera to capture planets, a planet very similar to Jupiter, a "young Jupiter "that weighs twice as much as this one but much less than the exoplanets observed so far directly. Its mass is approximately five times more than Jupiter.
"To detect exoplanets, other telescopes such as Kepler from NASA see its shadow; however, GPI sees its brightness, which is what we refer to as a direct image, "explains Macintosh.
His name is 51 Eridani b and orbits around the 51st Eridani star just 13 astronomical units away from its star, which is about 20 million years old.
Thanks to Gemini Planet Imager and its ability to detect objects that have a density much lower than any of those already discovered, it is possible to locate young planets like this one that still retain the heat derived from their formation stage. Thus, in examining thermal emissions, scientists have discovered that methane is the main component of its atmosphere, as in Jupiter.
In the study they also explain that this exoplanet formed in a similar way to the process that Jupiter experienced in its evolution. The finding has been published in the journal Science.
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